By now we’re all very familiar with the Bush Administration’s Orwellian doublespeak, its topsy-turvy, black-is-white, up-is-down reality-bending jargon and spin. This is Black Hole energy par excellence, and Dubya, a Black Hole veteran with no less than ten intense Black Hole aspects in his chart, is the perfect front man for it. We’ve become accustomed to viewing America through the bizarre prism of “compassionate conservatism,” where the terrorists hate us for our freedoms and who we are, not what we do; where we are forever turning the corner in the quagmire of Iraq; where No Child is Left Behind (except, of course, some of the unsaved ones in the eponymous Christian Right best-selling series about the Apocalypse); where huge giveaways to the drug companies constitute prescription coverage for seniors and huge giveaways to the oil and power companies constitute an energy policy; and where we have to destroy social security to save it.

We’ve been told by Dubya how much “hard werk” this all is, and certainly one solitary figurehead can’t do it all alone. That takes help, and the architects of the Bush vision, which is to say, our collective nightmare, are the props supporting the regime in its quest to remake the American landscape and the world in its image.

To some extent, this is true of any administration, and to some extent, it proceeds from the birth chart of the US itself. With the nation’s Saturn at 14 Libra closely conjunct Black Hole Nemesis at 13 Libra, there is always a tendency by those in power to see reality differently from those of us actually engaged in everyday life, and to attempt to remake it in their image. FDR’s administration comes immediately to mind as one that did this for the seeming good of most Americans, but even they are hardly blameless in their prosecution of the Second World War and the development of the atom bomb. The Black Hole makes distortion of reality a likely outcome of any occupancy in the Oval Office, but it seems Dubya’s personal connections, among them the conjunction of a mini-stellium of Chiron, the Moon and Jupiter with Nemesis, and an exact square from his 13 Cancer Sun to it, have put his administration over the top in this regard.

But any great effort is a collaborative process, and Bush would be sorely tried to implement his agenda if it weren’t for a few staunch supporters in key positions in the cabinet. Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales constitute the present administration’s Imperial Guard, and the astrological interweavings of their charts nicely illustrate Dubya’s unyielding adherence to the flawed vision culled from their private view of reality.

If we look back at the quotes that began this article, we can see how perfectly each of these individuals represents key aspects of the administration’s image. Gonzales’ comments on the Geneva Conventions show the disregard for the rule of law which characterizes both domestic and foreign policies. Rumsfeld’s convoluted circumlocutions describe the administration’s “Obfuscation as an Art Form” approach to public relations. Rice’s invocation of Iraq’s nonexistent WMD evokes the natural bent of this White House towards “fearmongering as policy.” Cheney’s outburst is typical of the administration’s “with us or against us” attitudes and the true contempt in which they hold all non-believers.

In the months ahead we’ll take a galactic microscope to each of these figures individually, but for now we’ll satisfy ourselves with a brief overview of their interconnectedness and the times in which we live.

The predominant mechanism driving this administration, and to which Dubya and his enablers all connect, is a massive synastric Galactic Grand Cross in the middle degrees of Fixed Signs. The Deep Space anomalies which underpin this pattern are Black Hole Eurydice at 16 Taurus, Black Hole Cernunnos at 10 Leo and the Maser at 13 Leo, the Pulsar at 15 Scorpio, and Black Holes Kybele and Attis at 12 and 13 Aquarius and the Pulsar at 16 Aquarius. The black holes provide the vision and the desire/ability to remake America in that image; the maser spews energy but also creates that unbalanced, out of phase quality, the Administration’s disconnect from reality. And the pulsars? Well, pulsars spin, which is something the Bushies do quite well.

Pulsars are rotating stellar core remnants which spin rapidly, and emit radio waves, or “pulses,” at regular intervals. They are informational in nature, and their prominence in mundane charts often indicate a high level of media involvement, or a newsworthy quality to the event. The Bush Administration’s careful manipulation of the media, both indirectly, via the allied conservative/corporatist interests who own and control it, and directly, via such methods as scripted town meetings, limited press conferences, and the outright buying of journalists such as Armstrong Williams, can be attributed to the prominence of pulsars in this pattern.

Dubya’s (7.6.46) connection to the pattern is clear. His Mercury/Pluto conjunction at 9 and 10 Leo falls securely on Black Hole Cernunnos, thus anchoring him to the Grand Cross. Mercury and Pluto are significant here, for it is (supposedly, at least) his vision and his message (both Mercury), and in Bush’s eyes, his mission to transform (Pluto) this country into an altered reality based upon that vision.

VP Dick Cheney is also tied to the Grand Cross. Born 30 January 1941, his Sun at 10 Aquarius is conjunct Black Holes Kybele and Attis, opposed Cernunnos and Bush’s Mercury/Pluto. It’s interesting that Cheney has always been seen as the power behind the throne, the eminence grise, the one who is actually setting policy and running things. With his sun, so central to his being, tied in this manner to the pattern which drives the Administration, we can well believe it. Additionally, Cheney’s natal Saturn at 8 Taurus, which squares his sun, is broadly conjunct Black Hole Eurydice and square Bush’s Mercury/Pluto as well, lending an executive cachet to his involvement.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (7.9.32), arguably the architect of the debacle in Iraq, is no stranger to the Grand Cross either. His Mercury at 11 Leo conjoins Black Hole Cernunnos and Bush’s Mercury/Pluto; he is often the mouthpiece for the Administration’s policy, at least as regards the “War on Terror” and its seedier aspects, such as the systemic torture and abuse of prisoners.

Condoleezza Rice, former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State in the second Bush term, born 14 November 1954, is closely linked to the pattern as well. Sporting Saturn at 13 Scorpio, conjunct the pulsar at 15 and exactly squared the 13 Leo Maser and Black Hole Attis at 13 Aquarius, her Mars is also firmly planted in exact conjunction with Black Hole Eurydice at 16 Taurus. This Saturn/Mars opposition is perhaps even more militaristic than Cheney’s sun/Saturn square.

Not to be outdone, Alberto Gonzales (8.5.55), former White House counsel and currently Attorney General, has an entire stellium enmeshed within the pattern. Mercury at 10 Leo is exactly conjunct Black Hole Cernunnos, followed closely by Jupiter and the Sun at 11 Leo, and Mars at 15 Leo, all points also conjunct the maser at 13 Leo and Bush’s Mercury/Pluto. Further, his Saturn at 14 Scorpio is in square to the stellium, conjunct the pulsar at 15, and a close match for Condi’s own.

Having three top Administration officials with natal Saturns embroiled in the energies of this Galactic Grand Cross is unfortunate; it implies a rigid adherence to the vision, with little tolerance for dissent or deviation from the plan. Interestingly, odd man out in this pattern was Colin Powell, Bush’s first Secretary of State, who never seemed to be quite on board with the policy. Born 5 April 1937, the most support Powell could muster was from his natal Uranus, a natural rebel and disruptive, truth-seeking naysayer, which at 8 Taurus is an exact match for Cheney’s Saturn (with whom he was reported to be in constant tension) and is only peripherally aligned with the Grand Cross.

Considering the havoc this Administration has wreaked with American domestic and foreign policy, it should come as no surprise to find that the Grand Cross has been going through a period of intense activation due to a prolonged transit from Neptune in Aquarius. Neptune has been activating, and aggravating, the pattern since virtually the first day of the Administration’s tenure in office; its effect has been to allow the donning of rose colored glasses (“Iraqis will greet us as liberators, with flowers and kisses; Iraq’s oil revenues will pay for the war; we’ll have a democratic Arab ally in the Mid-East”), the ignoring of reality (“the insurgence is in its last throes; we’re turning the corner in Iraq”), and a glamour thrown over the eyes of the American people, as truly grade A propaganda and obfuscation has ensued.

It was March 2001 when Neptune first reached 8 Aquarius, where it would station retrograde that spring, and made the first contact to the pattern, with simultaneous squares to Cheney’s Saturn and Powell’s Uranus. It was that May, with the retrograde exact, that Cheney was put in charge of air defenses. It is a still under-reported fact that Cheney was monitoring drills on the morning of September 11, 2001, which simulated the crashing of hijacked commercial airliners into prominent soft targets, including the World Trade Centers, at the precise moment that those towers were attacked. The confusion (Neptune) between real life (Saturn) and fantasy (Neptune) was a major factor in the lack of initial response to the threat—no one knew for certain if the blips going off course on the radar screens were actual hijacked aircraft or part of the simulated drill.

Neptune continued its roll over the Grand Cross, igniting Bush’s Mercury by opposition for the first time in February 2002, then moving on to the critical station retrograde degree of 10 Aquarius in March through July, from where it conjoined Cheney’s Sun, also opposing Dubya’s natal Pluto and Gonzales’ natal Mercury. This was the crucial period of assembling and cherry-picking the data for the case against Iraq. At the tail end of this time, with Neptune retrograding back to exact opposition to Bush’s Mercury at 9 Leo, the also under-reported Downing Street Memos were written, alleging that the US administration was “fixing” facts to “fit” the predetermined policy of invasion.

That October, when the Congress passed the Iraq War resolution, Neptune made a final station at 8 Aquarius. Indications are that Powell, whose peripheral involvement with the pattern was about to expire as per Neptune’s passage, began to withdraw from the policy at this point; despite his later UN presentation, doubts had begun to grow. At the time of that presentation, early February 2003, and the State of the Union Speech which preceded it in late January, Neptune had returned to the pivotal 10th degree of Aquarius, and now moved on to 11, and thus in opposition to Rumsfeld’s Mercury and Gonzales’ Sun/Jupiter, during the final run-up to the war which began in mid-March. Neptune for the start of hostilities was squarely on Black Hole Kybele at 12 Aquarius.

For Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech on May 1, 2003, Neptune at 13 Aquarius was in its strongest position in the Grand Cross, conjoined Black Hole Attis and opposed the maser at 13 Leo, as well as squaring Rice’s Saturn at 13 Scorpio. The reality-warping aspects of black hole energy were in full command, as Bush, the AWOL Vietnam-era National Guardsman, appeared in flight regalia and declared the combat phase of the war successfully concluded. The almost 1700 US servicemen and women who have died since then might dispute that sentiment.

And so it went, through the long hot summer of 2003 and into the autumn and early winter, as the situation on the ground in Iraq deteriorated, and the WMD, the administration’s public rationale for the war, were not located. When Saddam Hussein was captured on 13 December 2003, Neptune at 11 Aquarius had just crossed Cheney’s Sun at 10 Aquarius and opposed Bush’s Pluto at 10 Leo. It was exactly opposed Gonzales’ Sun/Jupiter and Rumsfeld’s Mercury at 11 Leo. The Administration was at the peak of its powers, but the situation would disintegrate rapidly.

One eclipse had already attempted to interject a note of reality to the proceedings. The Lunar Eclipse of 8 November 2003 at 16 Taurus, exactly conjunct Black Hole Eurydice and Condi Rice’s natal Mars, had coincided with the first rumblings of unease about the nonextant WMDs. A second Lunar Eclipse to follow on 4 May 2004 at 14 Scorpio, opposed Eurydice and conjunct the Pulsar at 15 Scorpio. It fell at the height of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse revelations. By now Neptune had broken new ground, moving on to its station retrograde degree of 15 Aquarius and the exact square to the pulsar at 15 Scorpio. The media feeding frenzy was intense, and Gonzales, whose Mercury at 15 Leo was directly impacted by the exact opposition, was first closely associated with the debacle due to his memos on torture and the “quaint” provisions of the Geneva Conventions which he claimed the War on Terror had rendered “obsolete.”

But the heyday of the enterprise was past; Neptune had provided its rush of over-confidence and the heady exhilaration of false victory. All that remained now was to drain the dregs of bitter reality from Neptune’s fantasy mug, as Americans began to wake up to the fraud that had been perpetrated upon them, and the enormous costs in blood and treasure that it entailed.

When the Duelfer Report was released on October 6, 2004, showing conclusively that Iraq possessed no WMD and only rudimentary programs for creating them, Neptune had returned to its station direct degree of 12 Aquarius, exactly conjunct Black Hole Kybele, revealing the reality behind the lies it had helped to disseminate earlier. The Administration’s “political capital” declined apace throughout the autumn and winter. By spring, when Neptune had moved on to 17 Aquarius and was breaking free of the pattern, the really serious chinks in the armor began to show. In early May 2005, with Neptune stationing retrograde at 17 Aquarius, the British press broke the story of the Downing Street Memos, minutes and notes taken of high level British Cabinet meetings in July 2002, more than six months before the Iraq War began, which made it clear that the Bush Administration was set on invasion and had been fixing the evidence to suit the policy.

Although Neptune would return to the middle degrees of the pattern in its ensuing retrograde period, the scales had fallen from the eyes of the American public, and Bush’s approval ratings by late summer had fallen into the low 40's and upper 30's, with help from such PR and natural disasters as Hurricane Katrina and the resultant spike in gas prices. More than 60% of the public now feel that the Iraq War was not worth it, and that they had been lied to and manipulated to garner their support; less than 30% feel the country is headed in the right direction.

Turning direct once more in mid-October 2005, Neptune has one last hurrah with this pattern until it moves past it forever by February of 2006. Unfortunately, though Neptune may be done toying with us, the Bush Administration is not: we’ll still have almost three years to go, barring acts of God or Congress. And the economic and humanitarian catastrophe left in its wake will be with us for a very long time indeed.

With Neptune gone, trailing its clouds of illusion and false hope, the true agenda of the Bush administration and its neocon allies will be revealed. Too late, alas, for 2000 American servicemen and 150,000 Iraqi civilians; too late for Constitutional freedoms in the US and human rights for detainees; too late to stop the fundamentalist/corporatist take-over of the Supreme Court and its ramifications for more than a generation.

But not too late, perhaps, to awaken the American people to the true peril which besets them, the spectacle of a chief executive intent upon an imperial presidency, and an administration of cronies who enable him.